Read press releases by prosecutors talking about new cases, or speaking indictments. They often try to character assassinate the defendant, and they try to build up the “victim” when possible.
jumping from press releases by lawyers to how criminal trials work is a jump. Clearly, inside the courtroom could be different from the press releases!
I was a defendant in a highly politicized free speech case and the lawyers on both sides made a couple gestures at character but the judge ignored them. overall the process was razor focused on establishing timelines and facts.
Yes obviously before and after the press releases focused on morality and character, which wasn’t really the crux of the outcome.
I was a defendant in a criminal trial and there were many personal attacks. They introduced many pieces of evidence that were irrelevant to whether a crime was committed. The rationale for most was it’s relevant to my “intent” but it was clear what they were trying to do.
(I was convicted and the judge overturned it partly for insufficient evidence. Appeal is ongoing so I don’t want to get into details. My case was somewhat unusual in that there was no dispute at to the main facts, but it was heavily disputed whether the facts made out the elements of the charges. There’s a lot of variance among cases and judges, I’m sure.)
I was also told many times by my lawyers that we had to stay on the judge’s good side and we shouldn’t make certain valid arguments or demand certain constitutional rights because we’d likely face retaliation from the government or judge. That’s a related way in which it’s not about the facts or the law.
EDIT/update: i just remembered a key detail of the trial which is that one of the reasons we won was a key prosecution witness (who said things which, to the best of my knowledge, were largely made up) got character-assassinated (the defense found evidence of mob ties) and that’s part of why his testimony got thrown out. So character assassination played a role there, just not directly about the defendants.
Criminal trials work similarly.
Read press releases by prosecutors talking about new cases, or speaking indictments. They often try to character assassinate the defendant, and they try to build up the “victim” when possible.
jumping from press releases by lawyers to how criminal trials work is a jump. Clearly, inside the courtroom could be different from the press releases!
I was a defendant in a highly politicized free speech case and the lawyers on both sides made a couple gestures at character but the judge ignored them. overall the process was razor focused on establishing timelines and facts.
Yes obviously before and after the press releases focused on morality and character, which wasn’t really the crux of the outcome.
I was a defendant in a criminal trial and there were many personal attacks. They introduced many pieces of evidence that were irrelevant to whether a crime was committed. The rationale for most was it’s relevant to my “intent” but it was clear what they were trying to do.
(I was convicted and the judge overturned it partly for insufficient evidence. Appeal is ongoing so I don’t want to get into details. My case was somewhat unusual in that there was no dispute at to the main facts, but it was heavily disputed whether the facts made out the elements of the charges. There’s a lot of variance among cases and judges, I’m sure.)
I was also told many times by my lawyers that we had to stay on the judge’s good side and we shouldn’t make certain valid arguments or demand certain constitutional rights because we’d likely face retaliation from the government or judge. That’s a related way in which it’s not about the facts or the law.
EDIT/update: i just remembered a key detail of the trial which is that one of the reasons we won was a key prosecution witness (who said things which, to the best of my knowledge, were largely made up) got character-assassinated (the defense found evidence of mob ties) and that’s part of why his testimony got thrown out. So character assassination played a role there, just not directly about the defendants.